I’m sure everyone reading this is thinking, “What, exactly, is a NovIntu, and where can I get one of my own?” It isn’t actually a word (until things get crazy and it becomes a household name, that is), but a combination of two Latin words:

We liked the fact that this combination of words represents what we will do both for our customers, and for future employees (we’ll talk more about our vision for radically altering the trajectories of our employees in another post).

As far as the “Software Solutions” part of the name, we heard two things loud and clear from a survey we conducted on prospective names:

Software-if we decided on an obscure/made up first name, we should strongly consider being specific with what we’ll be doing

Solutions > Labs-even if Labs is the future for software companies, Solutions is the present; people also liked the fact that we’re helping our customers solve problems

Easy to pronounce & spell-after saying it a few times (and capitalizing the “I”), it started rolling off the tongue; spelling could be an issue, but there are limited alternatives, and we plan to control for them

Something you wouldn’t be embarrassed to say on a sales call-no issue here, as we managed to avoid words like “moonbeam” and “Initech”

Reveal what the business will do-software & solutions. . .nailed it!

“.com” domain available (**bonus points for a short domain**)-the .com was available, and NovIntu is only 7 letters

We feel this name has the most potential, and meets each of our final criteria above.

Now, we are excited to move into the next phase of the process-choosing a logo! If anyone has input on concepts or specific designs, feel free to send a note to info@novintu.com. We welcome the input!

Going forward, I won’t be linking each and every blog post on Facebook (I’ll just be doing so occasionally). If you’re interested in following along with each post as they occur, enter your email address to the right, and you’ll get them delivered to your inbox.

Coming up with a name for your new company is difficult. If you ever want to spend significant portions of your day, evening, sleep time on something that feels like a waste of time, try naming a business. Over the course of about three weeks, and probably 15 phone conversations, 25 emails, and 50 “phone a friends,” we have completed the process. We’ll cover the new name in a future post. Today’s post is to help those who are interested in the process of naming a company, or are in the process of naming one right now.

Approach

While it had been in the back of our minds for quite some time, company naming got pretty important about 3 minutes after I put in my notice at LeanCor. We spent the next few days doing general research, listening to the Spirit, and creating a list of naming criteria. Then, we dug into the naming process using name search tools. Finally, we created a top 10 list of names and asked friends and family to fill out a brief survey.

Research

Some helpful sites/articles we found while researching theory and approach for company name creation:

Idioms-for those who enjoy a clever pun, but aren’t clever enough to create on their own; input words, and all known (and I think some made up) idioms appear

Scrabble Dictionary-looking for a ten letter word that starts/contains/ends with the root “veri?” Great place to find all that exist (and, again, a few that I’m pretty sure don’t)

At some point in your search, you’ll get good at executing this loop between several sites, and by the point you come across your name, you’re ready to name three more companies, your next six kids, and start a company-naming venture on the side. But, just like painting a room, by the time you’ve settled into a nice rhythm, the work is done.

Survey

We created an online survey based on our top 10 list, and sent it out to around 20 friends and family members to collect feedback. We asked folks to rank their top three favorites, and provide feedback on any names they hated, as well as any additional suggestions. The feedback portion in particular was especially valuable (who knew “Labs” wasn’t considered as good as “Solutions” for a software company?) and the survey definitely aided our process. Here are the survey results, listed in order from most popular (left) to least (right):

Check back later this week to find out which name we chose, and why. Here’s a hint-It was tweaked from one of the entries in the survey – the very far right one

Please take a moment to read the About this Blog section prior to diving in on the posts. Excited that you are joining us on this journey. Here we go!

]]>https://forkintheroadstartup.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/welcome/feed/1rlsieverWelcome_mat_2Start-up Q&Ahttps://forkintheroadstartup.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/start-up-thoughts/
https://forkintheroadstartup.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/start-up-thoughts/#respondMon, 21 Apr 2014 14:10:48 +0000http://forkintheroadstartup.wordpress.com/?p=2Several folks have asked very legitimate questions, and we thought it would be helpful to make an attempt at answering them thoughtfully.

Why are you doing this?

We believe strongly in creating and executing multi-generational visions for our families, and this includes creating a “family business.” Our goals do not center around making the most money, providing the most stable income, etc. There is way too much to go into in this post, but here are a few helpful links to get the conversation started:

What, exactly, are you doing?

We have a vision of using software to better connect people and processes. Many times, software defines how a process is performed. We believe a significant opportunity exists to discover the optimal process, and develop software to support that optimal process. Concepts like waste reduction, standard work, and problem solving have long been used to improve processes in a manufacturing environment, but we believe those same concepts can be applied in office environments as well. If you walked up to someone working on a house, and they were using a shovel to hammer nails, you’d hand them a hammer and say, “There’s a better way to do that.” Why don’t companies do the same thing for their employees with software tools?

What does the business plan look like, what’s the name of the company?

God has been speaking to both of us over the last year, and we have been doing significantly more listening than planning. With that in mind, our business plan is more conceptual, and our name is still “to be determined.” We have no preconceived notions about how this business will survive, or even grow, but we do feel called to pursue it, and are (continually working on) putting our trust in God:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to Him,

and He will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Quite the business plan, right?

What can I do to help?

Thanks so much for offering! Our biggest need right now is focused, intentional prayer around this endeavor. Both of us will experience times of stress, anxiety, and a desire to control situations. Please pray specifically that our hearts will be continually focused on God and seeking His kingdom, instead of building our own. Our wives could also use prayer for patience and wisdom.